History in the Colonial Library

The listings which follow can assist in charting the historiographical environment of the American colonists and the character of their historical resources. Although these lists are samples only, even this partial survey should supply the flavor of the colonists’ interest in history and the nature of their reading. The frequency with which a given title recurs does not prove much in isolation; a book which crops up rarely may yet be of startling significance to a Thomas Jefferson or a Richard Bland. Nevertheless, the lists serve as a rough indication of the colonists’ common exposure when seeking historical knowledge.

In some instances, however, the lists make a point of their own. David Hall’s orders to William Strahan reflect how the market for history books was enlarging. The catalogues of the Library Company of Philadelphia show the persisting interests of the stockholders in history. And Jefferson’s book lists, with their repetition of titles, show his enduring attachment to particular history books.

The lists include some works which might not be catalogued as history today, but which nevertheless had a historical significance for eighteenth-century colonists. There may be special meaning in the frequent priority accorded Sidney’s Discourses over Locke’s Treatises on Civil Government. While these lists accurately reflect the colonial absorption in English history, they also confirm the availability of diversified histories dealing with revolutions and, as Edwin Wolf has put it, “the mutability of kings and states.” The popularity of Abbé Vertot is particularly eloquent testimony to this interest. A comparable reading of the English governing classes at this same period might throw additional light on Anglo-American misunderstandings.

The form of the listings below follows substantially the form employed in the original, and where the identity of a book remains obvious, the original misspellings and minor title variations are retained. For purposes of typographical clarity, there is an effort at consistent italicizing of titles, which was not the case in the originals. Entries marked with an asterisk have not been identified.

The entries are grouped under geographical categories: New England; New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; and the Southern Colonies.

I.

COLLEGE CATALOGUES

A. Harvard College

1. LIBRARY CATALOGUE OF 1723

Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion

Coke’s Institutes

Cambden’s Britannia

Harrington’s Oceana

Rushworth’s Historical Collections

John Speed’s History of Great Britain

Potter’s Greek Antiquities

2. ADDED BETWEEN 1725 AND 1735

Burnet: History of Own Time

Selden’s Works

Tyrril’s History of England

Rapin’s History of England

3. ADDED BY 1773

James Burgh: Dignity of Human Nature

Cato’s Letters

Echard’s Ecclesiastical History

Gordon’s Tacitus

″ Sallust, with Cicero’s Orations against Cataline.

Hampden’s Tryal

David Hume’s History of England 6 v.

[White] Kennett’s Complete History of England 3 v. fol.

Basil Kennett: Roman Antiquities

John Locke: All his works. 3 v. fol.

Ludlow’s Memoirs

Catherine Macaulay’s History of England 5 v.

Milton: All his works

Molesworth: Account of Denmark and Sweden

William Molyneux: Case of Ireland, being bound by the Parliament of England

Edw[ard] W. Montagu: Rise and Fall of Republicks

Montesquieu, Oeuvres

Henry Neville on Government

John Oldmixon, History of England

Puffendorf: History of Sweden

″ Law of Nature and Nations

″ Intro. to the History of Europe

William Robertson: History of Scotland

″ ″ History of the Emperor Charles V.

Rollin’s Roman History

Rycaut’s Ottoman Empire

Temple Stanyan’s Greek History

Sydney on Government

Sir William Temple’s Works

James Tyrrel on the Ancient Constitution of the English Government. fol.

Library Catalogue, 1772 (William and Mary College Quarterly, 1st Ser., 10 [1902], 232–41; 11 [1903], 21–28; grandson of “King” Carter, “Councillor” Carter died in 1804; he had over 1500 volumes in his library by 1774.)

Postlethwayt’s Dictionary of Trade and Commerce

Locke’s Works 3 v.

Temple’s Works 2 v.

Ackerley’s Britannick Constitution

Spelman’s Works

Bacon’s Government Historical Discourse

Raleigh’s History of the World

Cooke on Littleton

Sidney on Government

Blackstone’s Commentaries

Universal History 21 v. & supplement

Bolingbroke Dissertation upon Parties

Buchanan’s History of Scotland

Echard’s Roman History

Hale’s History of the Common Law

Kaims’s Law Tracts

Montesquieu’s Spirit of Laws 2 v.

Kennet’s Roman Antiquities 2 sets

Salmon’s History of England

Molesworth’s Account of Denmark

Smollet’s History of England 10 v.

Littleton’s History of Henry VII 3 v.

Locke on human understanding

Oldcastle’s Remarks on the History of England. Reprinted from The Craftsman, written by Bolingbroke

Potter’s Greek Antiquities

Robertson’s History of Scotland 2 v.

Thoyras [Rapin], History of England

Gordon’s Tacitus 4 v.

Voltaire History of Charles XII of Sweden 3 v.

Sarpi History of the Council of Trent

Hume’s History of England 8 v.

Vertot’s Revolutions of Sweden

Littleton’s Life of Henry II 2 v.

Burnet’s History of his own Time of England 6 v.

Plutarch’s Lives 7 v.

Addison’s Works 3 v.

Trenchard’s Tracts 2 v.

5. THOMAS JEFFERSON, MONTICELLO, ALBEMARLE COUNTY, VIRGINIA

a.The First Library (burned at Shadwell, 1770; this list compiled from books inherited from Peter Jefferson, 1757, from the Virginia Gazette Day Books for the 1760s, and the invoice from Messrs Perkins, Buchanan and Brown, October, 1769. See Boyd et al., eds., Jefferson Papers, I, 34.)

David Hume’s History of England

William Robertson’s History of Scotland

Coke’s Institutes

Kames’s Historical Law Tracts

Dalrymple’s Essay on Feudal Property

Matthew Hale’s History of the Common Law

William Petyt, Jus Parliamentum

Thornhagh Gurdon’s History of Parliaments

Locke, On Government

Ellis, Tracts on Liberty

Warner’s History of Ireland

″ History of the Civil Wars in Ireland

Montesquieu, Oeuvres

b.The Second (Main) Library 1770–1815

(1) Jefferson’s list for Robert Skipwith, August 3, 1771 (Boyd et al., eds., Jefferson Papers, I, 79–80) indicates his familiarity with the following items not noted in the first library.

Sidney on Government

Ld. Bolingbroke’s political works 5 v.

Blackstone’s Commentaries 4 v.

Rollin’s Antient history. Eng. 13 v.

Stanyan’s Graecian history 2 v.

Livy. (the late translation)

Sallust by Gordon

Tacitus by Gordon

Vertot’s Revolutions of Rome Eng.

Plutarch’s Lives by Langhorns 6 v.

Robertson’s History of Charles the Vth 3 v.

Clarendon’s history of the rebellion 6 v.

Locke on Education

(2) Added by 1783 (All the above items were included in the 1783 manuscript catalogue Jefferson prepared prior to his expected voyage to France. Original in the Massachusetts Historical Society. In addition the following historical works were listed.)4

Goldsmith’s Roman History

Kennet’s Antiquities of Rome

Universal History

Raleigh’s History of the World

Pelloutier’s Histoire des Celtes

Ld Molesworth’s edition of Franco-Gallia [TJ wanted but did not yet own a copy]

″ ″ account of Denmark

Cambden’s Britannia

Verstegan’s Antiquities

Temple’s Introduction to the history of England

Brady’s History of England

Tyrrel’s History of England

Speed’s History of England

Baker’s Chronicle

Rapin’s Histoire d’Angleterre

Temple’s Works

Kennet’s compilation of a History of England, 1060–1702

Guthrie’s History of England, 54 A.C.–1702

Bish. Burnet’s History of his own times

Blackburne, ed., Memoirs of Thomas Hollis

Mrs. Macaulay’s History of England, 1603–1742

Chamberlayne’s Present State of Great Britain (1759)

Care’s English Liberties 2 copies

Fortescue on Monarchy

Acherley’s Britannic Constitution

Sommers’ rights of king & people

Nathaniel Bacon on government of England 2 copies

De Lolme sur la constitution d’Angleterre

[Hulme] An Historical Essay on the English Constitution

Stuart’s historical dissertation on the antiquity of the British constitution

(Jefferson’s catalogue for the University of Virginia, completed September 1824, formed the base for the 1828 Catalogue of the Library of the University of Virginia, ed. William H. Peden [Charlottesville, Va., 1945])

Stanyan’s Grecian History

Potter’s Antiquities of Greece

Vertot’s Revolutions de Rome

Gordon’s Tacitus

Basil Kennet’s Roman Antiquities

The Universal History

Vertot’s Revolutions de Portugal

Pelloutier, Histoire des Celtes

Ld Molesworth’s Account of Denmark

Camden’s Britannia by Gibson

Milton’s History of England

Brady’s History of England

Tyrrel’s History of England

Speed’s History of England

Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion

Temple’s Works

Rapin’s History of England

John Baxter’s New and Impartial History of England

Guthrie’s History of England and continuation

Burnet’s History of own times

Macaulay’s History of England

Buchanan’s History of Scotland

Robertson’s History of Scotland

Warner’s History of Ireland

Dalrymple’s Essay on Feudal Property

Sullivan’s Lectures on Feudal Law

Kaims’s Historical Law Tracts

″ British Antiquities

Spelman’s English Works

Filmer on Government

Sidney on Government

Nedham’s Excellencie of a free state

Nathaniel Bacon On the government of England

Acherley’s Britiannic Constitution

Tyrrell’s Bibliotheca Politica

Sir Thomas Smith, De republica Anglorum

Coke, Third Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England

″ Fourth Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England

Kames, Historical Law Tracts

Sir John Dalrymple: Essay towards a general history of Feudal Property

Hale’s History of the Common Law

Warner’s History of Ireland

Pelloutier, Histoire des Celtes

″ Histoire des Galates

Stanyan, Grecian History

Raleigh, History of the World

Malachy Postlethwayt, The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce 1751

Spelman, De Terminis Juridicis

″ Glossarium Archailogicum

William Somner, A Treatise of Gavelkind

Blackstone, Commentaries

Abraham Stanyan, An account of Switzerland 1714

William Camden, Britannia

William Temple, Observations upon the United Provinces

Paul Henry Mallet, Introduction a l’histoire de Danemark

William Guthrie, History of England

Robert Molesworth, An account of Denmark

Vertot, Histoire des Revolutions de Suède

Voltaire, Charles XII

Thomas Salmon, Modern History

[Obadiah Hulme] Historical Essay on the English Constitution, from the Saxon establishment 1771

Squire’s Enquiry into the Constitution of the Anglo-Saxon Government 1753

Sharpe, Declaration of the right of the people in legislation 1774

Care’s British Liberties 1767

Care’s English Liberties by Nelson 1719

Ellys on the Spiritual and Temperal Liberties of England 1763

Gilbert Stuart: Dissertation on the Antiquity of the English Constitution 1790

Burgh’s Political Disquisitions 1774

De Lolme’s Constitution of England

Fortescue on Monarchy

Sommers’ Judgement on the rights of Kings and People 1771

Rushworth’s Historical Collections 1659

Bolingbroke’s Political Writings

Gordon & Trenchard’s Cato’s Letters 1724

Gurdon’s History of Parliament 1731

Petyt’s Ancient Rights of the Commons 1680

″ Jus Parliamentum 1739

e.Historical Works on which Jefferson made notes

(From The Commonplace Book of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Gilbert Chinard; Chinard observed “it is remarkable that … political philosophers occupy so little space.”)

William Robertson, History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V

Francis Stoughton Sullivan, An Historical Treatise on the Feudal Laws

Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois (TJ: “has done mischief everywhere.”)

[Hulme,] An historical Essay on the English Constitution

Fortescue, De Laudibus Legum Angliae

David Hume, History of England

6. JOHN MACKENZIE, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

(A Catalogue of Books Given and Devised by John Mackenzie Esquire to the Charleston Library Society. … [Charleston, 1772])

Burnet’s History of own Times 2 v. 1724

Camden’s Britannia 2 v. 1753

Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion 1759 Oxford, 1721 2 sets

Harrington, Oceana 1747

Locke’s Works 3 v. 1759

Raleigh’s History of the World 2 v. 1736

Rapin’s History of England 2 v. fol. 1743

Sidney’s Discourse 1751

Bacon Nathaniel, on the Laws & Government of England 1760

Blackstone, Commentaries 1770 Oxford

Bracton, De Legibus 1640

Hume’s History of England 6 v. 1762

Lyttleton’s Henry II 2 v. 1760

Tacitus 2 v. 1721

Warner’s History of Ireland 1763

″ History of Rebellion and Civil Wars in Ireland 1767

Bolingbroke’s Dissertation on Parties 1743

Buchanan’s History of Scotland 1722 2 v.

Chamberlain’s Present State of Britain 1755

Coke’s Reports 7 v. 1738

Dalrymple on Feudal Property 1758

Kames’s Historical Law Tracts 1761 Edinburgh

Macaulay, History of England 4 v. 1769

Molesworth, Account of Denmark 1738

Montagu, Rise and Fall of ancient Republicks 1759

Plutarch’s Lives 6 v. 1758

Potter’s Antiquities of Greece

Smollett’s History of England 7 v. 1758

Stanyan’s Grecian History 2 v. 1751

Temple’s Works 1757

Cato’s Letters 4 v. 1755

Fletcher of Salton’s Political works Glasgow 1749

Gordon’s Tacitus 5 v. 1753

Rollin’s ancient history 12 v. 1749

IV. THE BOOK TRADE

A. New England

1. JOHN MEIN, BOSTON PUBLISHER AND BOOKSELLER

1765 Catalogue (Original in Massachusetts Historical Society)

Rollin’s Ancient History

Hume’s History of England to 1688 8 v.

Robertson’s History of Scotland

Potter’s Antiquities of Greece

Kennett’s Antiquities of Rome

Burnet’s History of his own Time

Ludlow’s Memoirs

Vertot’s Revolutions of Portugal

Buchanan’s History of Scotland 2 v.

Sidney on Government

Locke on Human Understanding

Temple’s Works

Kaims’s Law Tracts

2. HENRY KNOX, BOSTON BOOKSELLER

1773 Catalogue (A Catalogue of Books Imported and to be Sold [Boston, 1773])

4. JOHN LANGDON, BOOKSELLER IN CORNHILL, BOSTON1774 Advertisement (Boston-Gazette, Feb. 7, 1774) Advertises “the 12th edition of Lord Somers Judgment of whole Kingdoms and Nations,” with remark that ten editions have been issued in London in less than twelve months. The 11th edition was published in Philadelphia in 1773, followed closely by this 12th edition from Newport, R.I., in 1774.

1773 Advertisement (“Imported in the last vessels, and to be sold by Noel and Hazard,” Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer, July 1, 1773)

Goldsmith’s Roman History

″ History of England

3. JOHN DONALDSON, NEW YORK BOOKSELLER

1773 Advertisement (Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer, Sept. 9, 1773)

Lord Bolingbroke’s Miscellaneous Works 4 vols.

Rollin’s Ancient History

Vertot’s Revolutions of Rome

4. SAMUEL LONDON, SHIP-CHANDLER AND BOOKSELLER, NEW YORK

1773 Advertisement (Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer, July 8, 1773)

Hume’s, M’Caulay’s, &c. Histories of England

Robertson’s Hist. of Scotland

Others “too numerous to insert particulars here.”

5. WILLIAM GREEN, NEW YORK BOOKSELLER

a.1775 Advertisement (Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer, May 11, 1775)The Chronicles of the King’s of England … down to His present Majesty, George III “This excellent History contains a true Description of royal Life and Manners.”

Advertisement for the complete Political Disquisitions by James Burgh (Robert Bell’s Philadelphia edition), which shows “how, and by what means, the royal, ministerial, and Parliamentary managers cajole, tempt, and bribe the people to commit suicide on their own liberties. … The perusal of the work at this important period, will be attended with the most salutary and certain advantages, if the inhabitants of America will be so rational, as to act wisely, in taking warning from the folly of others. …”

7. ANDREW BRADFORD, BOOKSELLER, SECOND STREET, PHILADELPHIA

1731 Advertisement (American Weekly Mercury, Dec. 28, 1731)

Burnet’s History of His Own Time

Temple’s Observations on the United Provinces

8. DAVID HALL, PHILADELPHIA BOOKSELLER

a.Book orders to William Strahan, 1751–1765 (From David Hall Letterbooks, American Philosophical Society)

(1) Order of Mar. 28, 1751 (Letterbook #1)

Locke on Understanding

Addison’s Works

Raleigh’s History of the World (abridged)

(2) Order of Jan. 3, 1754 (Letterbook #1)

Gordon’s Tacitus

Locke on Education

(3) Order of Aug. 7, 1754 (Letterbook #1)

3 Copies Kennet’s Roman Antiquities

3 Copies Locke on Government

3 Copies Cato’s Letters

(4) Order of Jan. 3, 1755 (Letterbook #1)

2 Copies Gordon’s Tacitus

(5) Order of Apr. 4, 1757 (Letterbook #1)

Sidney on Government

Gordon’s Tacitus

Cato’s Letters

Locke on Education

(6) Order of Dec. 22, 1760 (Letterbook #2)

Sidney on Government

Montague’s Rise and Fall of Republicks

3 Copies Rollin’s Ancient History

3 Copies ″ Roman History

6 Copies Cato’s Letters

6 Copies Independent Whig

(7) Order of May 10, 1762 (Letterbook #2)

Burgh Britain’s Remembrancer 6 copies

Locke on Government 6 copies

Cato’s Letters 3 copies

(8) Order of Mar. 3, 1763 (Letterbook #2)

Cato’s Letters 3 copies

(9) Order of Dec. 17, 1764 (Letterbook #2)

3 copies of Sidney on Government

b.Book Order for the Library Company of Philadelphia (In May 1763 David Hall reported to Strahan that he was now buying for the Library Company of Philadelphia and requested only “the latest and best Editions.”)

“Just Imported in the Friendship. … A Neat Collection of New Books; Consisting of Law, Physick, History and Divinity.” Catalogue at the shop.

6. ROBERT WELLS, BOOKSELLER, CHARLESTON

1771 Advertisement (South-Carolina Gazette, May 23, 1771)

Advertises a “grand Feast of HISTORICAL ENTERTAINMENT,” namely the third volume of William Robertson’s “celebrated” History of Charles V. Boasts also of constantly maintaining “the LARGEST and most COMPLETE STOCK of BOOKS to be met with in America.”

7. SAMUEL GIFFORD, BOOKSELLER, CHARLESTON

1772 Advertisement (South-Carolina Gazette, Nov. 26, 1772)

“Lately arrived from London … has taken a Store in Broad-Street Charleston … which he has opened as a Circulating Library.” The fee is £1 per year, or 12/-per six months, and 3d for a catalogue. New books can be kept four days, others up to one month.

The typeface used for this book is Bembo, produced by Monotype in 1929. It is based on a roman cut at Venice by Francesco Griffo in 1495. The companion italic is based on a font designed in Venice in the 1520s by Giovanni Tagliente. Bembo is a graceful and versatile face of genuine Renaissance structure.

This book is printed on paper that is acid-free and meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, Z39.48-1992.(archival)

[1.]This item was not Stuart’s but the anonymously published essay now ascribed to Obadiah Hulme. It was a similar error—in favor of Allan Ramsay—which attracted sufficient notice at Columbia, later, to be copied generally.

[2.]This initial catalogue no longer exists, and the following historical selection is drawn from the compilation by Edwin Wolf 2nd. Catalogues were published in 1735, 1741, 1746, 1757, 1764, 1770, and 1775.

[3.]The Adams books are mainly distributed among three repositories: the Stone Library back of the Adams mansion at Quincy; the Boston Athenaeum; most are at the Boston Public Library. The BPL issued a catalogue of its holdings of Adams books in 1917; in 1938 Henry Adams and Worthington C. Ford issued A Catalogue of the Books of John Quincy Adams Deposited in the Boston Athenaeum, which identified the books of John Adams and indicates when they have his marginal comments. It would seem that several of the following works were in Adams’s hands in the 1770s and 1780s, and he failed to list them in his 1790 catalogue.

[4.]The entire collection that made up Jefferson’s enormous second library is expertly catalogued in E. Millicent Sowerby, ed., The Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 5 vols.